Mesh Editor: centering pivot

[superstar]

Hi,

Unity Pro 5.5.2p2
Mesh Editor (included as part of Mesh Maker 2.7)

On some meshes, when I select the vertices and then go to "Pivot Point" and then press "Set To Center" it accurately sets to the center.  But, when I press the "Update", the pivot point then shifts away from where the center was intended.  I would retry again, and it would initially center, but when the update happens, it shifts away.  Each time that I do this, the pivot point gets closer to the intended center.  The work around I discovered was that I had to do this sequence of "Set To Center" and press "Update" multiple times until it reaches the intended center.

On many meshes, the centering works at the very first update, but on some meshes, the update just shifts the pivot point away from the calculated center.  I have also tried using the Mesh Tools and used the "Transform Pivot Point" and manually applying the position of the center, and the same effect of shifting happens.

Have you experienced something similar to this behavior before?  Or, maybe, it's something with the particular mesh itself?  Or, maybe I am not selecting properly?

Thank you

[MediaGiant]

Hi Superstar,

I can't say I've experienced this exact thing, but nine times out of ten, when the pivot point doesn't move to where I think it should, it is because I have set the Pivot tool (top left of the editor window just next the transform buttons) to Center rather than Pivot.

It may also be that the object is parented and the parent object is affecting it. Just a wild guess, but I'm trying to get a sense of what is going on.

If that doesn't help you can write to me at support@meshmaker.com and perhaps send me a copy of the object so I can run some tests on it here.

Thanks again for your continued patronage.

All the best,
Alan

[superstar]

Hi Alan,

I have done further testing and I have discovered what may be causing this!

It seems to be the scale of the object.  If the object has a scale of all (1,1,1), then the "Set To Center" and "Update" of the pivot works as intended.  But if the scale is set to other values, then the centering of the pivot is shifting.

Here's how to duplicate this:

1. Create an initial cube object with scale (1,1,1) and have its pivot at any bottom corner
2. Change the cube to a new scale.  For example, Scale (2.7, 2.7, 2.7)
3. Lock the cube in Mesh Editor, and then select all 4 bottom vertices of the cube
4. Go into "Pivot Point" menu and press the "Set To Center".  The centering looks correct at this moment.
5. Press the "Update".  The center is now shifted.

Can you confirm if you can duplicate the above?

Thank you so much for the response!

[MediaGiant]

Thank you for the detailed feedback. I can confirm that after following your steps that the pivot point was higher than it should have been after clicking on the Update button. It appears that part of the code is not taking the changed scale into account.

In the interim there is an easy way to work around this:

On the front page of Mesh Editor there is a button called Normalize Scale, after you lock onto the cube with the different scale, click on this button to set the scale of the cube to (1, 1, 1) after which you can then set the pivot point as normal. Once moved the pivot point will be correct, but the difference is that the scale of the cube will be (1, 1, 1) instead of (2.7, 2.7, 2.7).

Thanks again for letting me know about this and tracking down the problem, I'll be sure to get it fixed in the next update.

 

[superstar]

It is great news that this particular issue can be reproduced!

Yes, for the time being I am normalizing the scale of objects to make things work.

I am very excited and looking forward to the next forthcoming update.


Thanks again!